1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to resonators, filters, and methods of fabricating the resonator and more particularly, to a piezoelectric resonator, a high-frequency filter having the piezoelectric resonator, and a method of fabricating the resonator. Specifically, the present invention relates to an adjustment technique of a resonant frequency.
2. Description of the Related Art
As radio communication devices such as mobile telephones have been rapidly spreading, a filter composed of small-sized and lightweight resonators and a combination of the aforementioned resonators has been increasingly demanded. So far, with the use of a surface acoustic wave (hereinafter referred to as SAW) generated on a surface of a piezoelectric substance, a SAW resonator, which is a piezoelectric element, or a SAW filter having the SAW resonator has been used for filtering a certain resonant frequency component as an electric signal. These days, a piezoelectric thin-film resonator and the filter having the piezoelectric thin-film resonator are increasingly gaining attention, because the piezoelectric thin-film resonator has excellent high-frequency characteristics, and is also capable of being downsized and having a monolithic structure.
The above-mentioned piezoelectric thin-film resonators are categorized into two types, FBAR (Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator) and SMR (Solidly Mounted Resonator). The FBAR includes a laminated structure of an upper electrode film, a piezoelectric film, and a lower electrode film, which are laminated on a substrate such as silicon or glass. A hole or cavity is provided immediately below the lower electrode film facing the upper electrode film so as to confine an elastic energy. This hole is formed by wet etching a sacrifice layer provided on a substrate surface or wet or dry etching from a backside of the silicon substrate. On the other hand, the SMR has a structure of acoustic reflection film, instead of the above-mentioned hole, in which a high acoustic impedance film and a low acoustic impedance film are alternately laminated with a film thickness of λ/4 where λ is a wavelength of an acoustic wave.
Aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta), platinum (Pt), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), and iridium (Ir) may be used for the electrode film in the piezoelectric thin-film resonator. Aluminium nitride (AlN), zinc oxide (ZnO), lead zirconate titanate (PZT), and lead titanate (PbTiO3) may be used for the piezoelectric film.
A high-frequency voltage is applied between the upper electrode and the lower electrode in the piezoelectric thin-film resonator as an electric signal, and then an acoustic wave is excited due to an inverse piezoelectric effect in the piezoelectric film arranged between the upper electrode and the lower electrode. A deviation generated by the acoustic wave is converted into an electric signal due to the piezoelectric effect. This acoustic wave is completely reflected on surfaces of the upper electrode film and the lower electrode film, the surfaces respectively contacting with air. The acoustic wave is a longitudinal mode thickness excitation having a main displacement in a direction of thickness of the piezoelectric film. The resonator or filter having desired frequency characteristics is obtainable by utilizing the above-mentioned resonance effects.
On an FBAR-type piezoelectric thin-film resonator, for example, the resonance occurs at a frequency of H=nλ/2, where H denotes a total thickness of the laminated structure having main components of the upper electrode film, the piezoelectric film, and the lower electrode film, which are formed on the hole, and λ denotes a wavelength of the acoustic wave. Therefore, nλ/2 denotes integral multiplication (n times) of a half of the wavelength λ. Here, in the case where V is set to a propagation velocity of the acoustic wave determined by a piezoelectric film substance, a resonance frequency F=nV/(2H). The resonance frequency F can be controlled by the total thickness H of the laminated structure.
In the case where the filter is designed by arranging multiple piezoelectric thin-film resonators described above, the following points are essential. First, the resonance frequencies of the multiple piezoelectric thin-film resonators arranged on a single substrate or wafer have to be slightly different from one another, generally several percent. The adjustment for realizing the above-mentioned resonance frequencies is called a Δf adjustment process. Now, a first resonator is defined as a resonator in which the resonance frequency thereof is changed in the Δf adjustment process, and a second resonator is defined as a resonator in which the resonance frequency thereof is not changed in the Δf adjustment process. Second, a center frequency of the filter has to be adjusted accurately by controlling the frequencies of the above-mentioned resonators. For example, the filter composed of multiple first and second resonators may have a deviation of the center frequency from the design value due to the degree of accuracy of forming the laminated structure of the thin film. Therefore, the center frequency of the filter has to be adjusted to the design value.
As described above, the highly accurate filter with the multiple piezoelectric thin-film resonators requires the resonance frequencies to be adjusted at least twice.
As described above, the piezoelectric thin-film resonator or the filter having the piezoelectric thin-film resonators should be fabricated taking the following into consideration. First, the first and second resonators should be fabricated on a single substrate or wafer, and the resonance frequency of each of the first resonators should be adjusted accurately in the Δf adjustment process. Second, the center frequency of the filter with the multiple first and second resonators should be accurately adjusted.
It is well known that the resonance frequency of the resonator is inversely proportional to the thickness (weight) of the thin-film laminated structure. That is to say, the thicker (the heavier) the thin-film laminated structure becomes, the resonance frequency tends to be lower. The thinner (the lighter) the thin-film laminated structure becomes, the resonance frequency tends to be higher.
Conventionally, the following methods are well known as the Δf adjustment methods so that the multiple resonators having different resonance frequencies may be fabricated on a single substrate.
A first method is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-335141 referred to as Document 1). The adjustment is performed by making the upper electrode thin and shifting the resonance frequency to be higher. However, this method has a problem in that the electrode surface gets activated in making the thin-film electrode, is chemically reacted with oxygen in the presence, and is oxidized. It is thus difficult to obtain the stable resonance characteristics. The upper electrodes of the first and second resonators have different surface states after the Δf adjustment process. This prevents the resonance frequencies of the first and second resonators from being adjusted uniformly, and makes it difficult to adjust the center frequency stably while maintaining the filter characteristics.
A second method is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-359539 (hereinafter referred to as Document 2). The frequency is adjusted by oxidizing the surface of the upper electrode. The second method, as in the first method, it is difficult to evenly oxidize the upper electrodes having different surface states. It is thus difficult to adjust the center frequency stably.
A third method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,647 (hereinafter referred to as Document 3). The adjustment is performed by making the upper electrode thick and shifting the resonance frequency to be lower. However, this method requires a substrate or wafer to be taken out from vacuum equipment once for partially providing a new layer on the single substrate. At this time, an oxidized film is naturally formed on the upper electrode film. This naturally oxidized film has a bad film adhesion to the above-mentioned newly added film. There is a problem in that it is hard to obtain excellent resonance characteristics and realize the highly accurate adjustment. Additionally, only some of the multiple resonators formed on the single substrate are required to have thick upper electrode films. However, this needs an increased number of fabrication steps and raises production cost.
As described above, any one of the conventional Δf adjustment methods is not sufficient for adjusting the resonance frequency of the resonators and the center frequency of the filter.